EPT12 Prague: Kurganov leads the field in Super High Roller

The plan today in the High Roller is to play ten levels or until the final table of eight is reached, whichever comes first. With five and a half of those ten levels completed lets take a look at how things stand...

Mid-day update

It's been a devilishly good day for Igor Kurganov so far. The high stakes specialist who plays as 'lechuckpoker' online started the day with 666,000 and has almost trebled that as he's now got 1,800,000 with blinds at 10,000/20,000 ante 3,000. He got his day off to a good start by turning two pair against Ivan Luca's top pair to all but eliminate the Argentinian. When he busted Piotr Franczak with jacks against tens, in a pot worth over 200,000, he eclipsed the million chip mark for the first time and took the chip lead. Further eliminations of Andres Munoz and Jean-Noel Thorel have propelled him towards the two million mark.

Kurganov is top of the pile

If you thought that was an impressive chip stack improvement then let us present Exhibit B, otherwise known as Dzmitry Urbanovich. He likes to leave it late to enter these high rollers and bought in at the start of Day 2. He's since spun the 250,000 he received into 1,700,000. He eliminated Mike McDonald, who won the €25,000 High Roller at EPT12 Malta, with kings against A♦9♠ flopping quads just for good measure.

A little dose of luck helps of course and the Pole had the Poker Gods smile on him when he eliminated Byron Kaverman just a shot time ago. The American, who currently sits atop the yearly Global Poker Index rankings, three-bet all-in with pocket queens and Urbanovich tank called (he had the clock called on him) with A♠T♦. An ace and a ten on the flop gave him the lead and the pot.That win boosted him to 1,600,000, good for third in the current chip counts, just behind Sam Greenwood, who has 1,670,000.

Chip counts

Name

Country

Chips

Igor Kurganov

Russia

1,800,000

Sam Greenwood

Canada

1,670,000

Dzmitry Urbanovich

Poland

1,600,000

Luuk Gieles

Netherlands

1,500,000

Daniel Dvoress

Canada

1,160,000

Thomas Muehloecker

Austria

1,000,000

Steve O'Dwyer

Ireland

790,000

Vladimir Troyanovskiy

Russia

740,000

Mustapha Kanit

Italy

710,000

Anthony Zinno

USA

503,000

Bryn Kenney

USA

485,000

Dario Sammartino

Italy

460,000

Ole Schemion

Germany

455,000

Paul Newey

UK

410,000

Alex Bilokur

Russia

370,000

David Peters

USA

323,000

John Juanda

Indonesia

260,000

Timothy Adams

Canada

240,000

Chistoph Vogelsang

Germany

200,000

Just another day at the office...

Prize pool

Earlier today the prize pool information was announced, the total prize pool is a chunky €2,688,840, of which the winner will take home €806,650 with eight players cashing for at least €107,550. There will though be a new champion as Leonid Markin was eliminated by Fedor Holz.

Place

Amount

1st

€ 806,650

2nd

€ 583,500

3rd

€ 376,400

4th

€ 285,000

5th

€ 220,500

6th

€ 172,100

7th

€ 137,140

8th

€ 107,550

Notable eliminations

All of them! What you want more? Ok.

Team PokerStars Pro's interest in this tournament ended with the elimination of Jason Mercier during the third level of the day. He three-bet all-in with K♥Q♥ for just over 13.5 big blinds, Daniel Dvoress called with pocket sixes and the pair held on a 4♣3♦5♦8♠A♠ board.

Sylvain Loosli won the last Super High Roller event, held in Barcelona back in August. He won't be winning this one though as he lost the last of his chips with A♥3♥ against Paul Newey's pocket eights.